[Walter Pole]

Hi everyone

I have a friend who is selling his window cleaning business in order to go to college in September.  He has already sold the work and has offered me his van and system:

300l DI WFP van mount with 45m/3m poles, hoses and brushes in Citroen Berlingo 1.9D, 2001 model with 150,000 miles.  All in VGC.

Is £4k a fair price?

Thanks
Mark

[Walter Pole]

Graham, how did you know he is going to bible college??

[AuRavelling79]

It's all down to the van really - find out it's value vis-a-vis it's condition, tell us and then we can advise whether the system is good value or not.

[windows_chepstow]

Would you touch a 150,000 mile engine?

No, nor me.

That is high mileage for a four year old vehicle.  What's the service history like?

[Walter Pole]

It was owned by Avis and has full service history and documents...it drove (or was driven) 18000 miles in one month!!!  But it it has been serviced regularly and looks fine, or as any white van can look...problem I face is do I buy it and as a result take my business more seriously, rather than a part time pocket money type of job - I also run a taxi business which gives the same sort of hourly (£) return for effort.  I suppose I am looking for inspiration.

[www.mrgutters.co.uk]

hi guys


personally service history or no service history 150.000 miles is alot. plus a di system is worth loads , it it were ro different story , you can sort a nice van with less miles for alot less than that a a di system brand new from windowcleaningwarehouse.com for 995.00 with poles tank etc , you could sort the same sort of system for around as your mates for £2500 including van,


shawn

[Walter Pole]

Thanks Shawn

That was the sort of feeling I had.  Whilst he is a friend keen to sell the van, business sensibility must come first and it would appear this is far too much money.  I am seeing him later and suppose the acid test is what it is worth to me, compared with what else I could buy.  For me to feel, yes I want this it will have to be at a price too good to refuse.  Thanks again Tosh, Malc, Graham and Shawn.

[stuart@skypole]

 hi,

im sorry but apart from the system i disagree about the van and its mileage,

150k is not or only just run in!
the average make of car or van (engine) if well maintained will last over 275k so mileage isnt the issue if your unsure to its true value take it to a citreon dealer, after all a similar van at an auction will cost around £1100 with probably not alot of service history so its not the amount of miles its done but the service its had a high milage well maintained van will work better than a low mileage non serviced van

ring the aa for a van inspection check, then once you know the price of the van you can start to ask around and get a value on the wfp system in it.

stuart@skypole

[Moderator David@stives]

If you are in the market for a van and system and you know the history ,well why not ,sometimes its better the devil you know and at least you can set to work straight away . if you wait and shop around it could take you weeks to find a deal on a van then youve got to find a system which all takes time .
and as we all know time is money.

dave